A few photographs of a woman dressed in military uniform are going viral on social media amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which began on 24 February 2022.
The claim along with the photographs suggests that it shows Natasha Perakov, "the first Ukrainian female hunter pilot in Ukraine", who died fighting the ongoing war.
However, these claims are not true as the suggested person is not Perakov and her real name is Olesya Vorobey, a Ukrainian soldier who won the "Glory to the Heroines!" beauty contest in 2016. Ukraine's first female pilot was identified as Nadiya Savchenko, who is now a politician.
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CLAIM
The viral post’s caption reads, “Natasha Perakov, the first female hunter pilot in Ukraine, died after being seriously injured. She was just 28.”
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Another post with over 10,000 views also includes a video of a pilot entering and flying the fighter jet. The caption said, “The first female Ukraine Fighter, Natasha Perakov, just died after severe injuries in Kiev conflict. #Natasha_Perakov was a popular Ukrainian fighter jet pilot who died on the battlefield (Ukraine vs Russia War, 2022).”
Similar claims were shared on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some of which can be found here, here and here.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We conducted a Google Reverse Image search of the viral photo and found the same image on the official website of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
The Ukrainian military website indicated the woman from the viral photo to be Olesya Vorobey.
(The website has been translated from Ukrainian to English)
(Source: Ukrainian military website/Screenshot)
The article, posted in 2016, by the Ukrainian military carried the viral photo which is currently making rounds on social media. According to that report, the photograph shows Olesya Vorobey, the winner of a contest in Starobilsk, Ukraine.
The contest was a beauty contest that was held for women serving in the Ukrainian military and law enforcement. Vorobey represented the Ukrainian armed forces in the contest.
The report only mentions that Vorobey was a part of an anti-terrorist operation and served in the West Operational Command and not a fighter pilot as claimed in the viral posts.
By doing a keyword search for Ukraine’s first female combat pilot, we found an article by Los Angeles Times about Nadiya Savchenko, who wasn't killed during the current conflict. She has now stepped into politics and is now a Member of Parliament. Savchenko has been posting regular videos on her verified Facebook page, talking about the ongoing war with Russia.
According to the LA Times article, Savchenko was Ukraine’s first female combat pilot who had spent almost two years behind bars in Russia after being captured by pro-Russian separatist militants in 2014.
She was reportedly caught amid a conflict in Ukraine and was sentenced to 22 years in jail by a Russian court for allegedly killing two journalists. However, she denied the charges and was freed in May 2016.
We also conducted a keyword search for female Ukrainian fighter pilots dying in the ongoing war and didn't find any official report.
Therefore, unrelated photographs of a Ukrainian soldier were shared to claim that it showed the first female hunter pilot of the country, who was killed in the ongoing war.
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